Advancing the leadership and service delivery skills of individual public leaders and organizations is a fundamental part of the Council's mission to improve government performance. Because government agencies must produce high-quality results for citizens, their leaders must be visionaries, innovators, and accountable managers prepared to perform in an ever-changing environment.

Building on the foundation of its Principals and their experience as both public and private sector executives, the Council for Excellence in Government has created a leadership development model that challenges participants to define and connect a vision of the future to the specific missions of their agencies and to develop strategies for achieving and measuring results.

At the heart of these leadership programs is the practice of leadership benchmarking--carefully planned site visits to high-performance organizations that provide participants with the opportunity to learn from the experience, insight, and accomplishments of real-world leaders. This practice, combined with small group and individual coaching sessions, challenges our participants to examine core leadership concepts, their own leadership choices, and the demands placed upon those who serve as accountable public officers

During the past ten years, the Excellence in Government Fellows Program has provided this transformational experience to more than 1,000 government executives, who, having participated in the year-long program, are now leading results-oriented change throughout the federal government. Collectively, their achievements have meant millions of dollars in savings for the American taxpayer and tangible results for the American public. These graduates remain a vital part of the Council beyond their Fellowship experiences, as participants in the follow-on learning, training, and networking opportunities offered by the Council's Senior Fellows Program, and as contributors to many other Council programs

In addition to the opportunities we offer to Fellows, the Council Partners with government agencies and departments to help them achieve specific measurable results for their institutions. The powerful combination of leadership benchmarking, Principal participation in issue-focused roundtables and facilitated management dialogues, coaching, and workshops enables these agencies to design and implement effective change strategies.

The Council for Excellence in Government works to strengthen results oriented management and creative leadership in the public sector and uses this objective as the foundation for all of its leadership programs.